University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine scientists have discovered the fastest way to identify potent, neutralizing human monoclonal antibodies against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
Hologic, Inc. announced the commercial availability in Europe of its 3DQuorum Imaging Technology, Powered by Genius AI. The innovation was designed to help improve mammography efficiency and workflow, which is critical as clinics strive to manage the backlog of women whose routine breast screening was delayed due to the COVID-19 lockdown.
Is mammography still the best method for breast cancer screening? For a number of breast cancers, the latest scientific findings suggest otherwise. For more than a decade, Professor Christiane Kuhl MD, Director of the Clinic for Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology at the University Hospital RWTH Aachen, has researched the use of MRI in breast cancer screening.
A new review, conducted by Professor John Field from the University of Liverpool and Professor Matthijs Oudkerk, University of Groningen, provides an authoritative insight into the current status of lung cancer screening. Lung cancer kills more people than any other cancer. The number of deaths in 2017 in the UK was 3,300, making lung cancer the commonest cause of cancer death in the UK for both…
Breast cancers that are detected in the interval between national screening programme mammograms have a worse prognosis than those detected at the time of a screening, even if they have the same biology, according to research presented at the 12th European Breast Cancer Conference. Analysis of results from over eight years’ follow-up of the international MINDACT randomised phase III clinical…
With COVID-19 testing an important part of controlling the spread of the virus, finding an effective software system to manage the testing process and collate the results, on a national level and individually within businesses, hospitals, care-homes and schools etc., is essential. Thomson Screening developed SchoolScreener Imms in order to manage health testing within schools, but with the…
Sending a “selfie” to the doctor could be a cheap and simple way of detecting heart disease, according to the authors of a new study. The study is the first to show that it’s possible to use a deep learning computer algorithm to detect coronary artery disease (CAD) by analysing four photographs of a person’s face. Although the algorithm needs to be developed further and tested in larger…
Smoking is strongly linked to lower use of cancer screening services by women, and more advanced disease once cancer is diagnosed, new research reveals. Tobacco use is falling in many parts of the world, but it’s falling less rapidly among women than it is among men. And lung cancer remains the leading cause of cancer death among women, say the researchers. The evidence also suggests that women…
Researchers at the University of Notre Dame are developing a new technique using artificial intelligence (AI) that would improve CT screening to more quickly identify patients with the coronavirus. The new technique will reduce the burden on the radiologists tasked with screening each image. Testing challenges have led to an influx of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 requiring CT scans which…
A ‘pill on a string’ test can identify ten times more people with Barrett’s oesophagus than the usual GP route, a new study shows. The test, which can be carried out by a nurse in a GP surgery, is also better at picking up abnormal cells and potentially early-stage cancer. Barrett’s oesophagus is a condition that can lead to oesophageal cancer in a small number of people. It’s usually…
Researchers have developed the first blood test that can accurately detect more than 50 types of cancer and identify in which tissue the cancer originated, often before there are any clinical signs or symptoms of the disease. In a paper published in the leading cancer journal Annals of Oncology, the researchers show that the test, which could eventually be used in national cancer screening…
Scientists from the project SOLUS (Smart optical and ultrasound diagnostics of breast cancer) under the EU funding framework programme Horizon2020 have developed a non-invasive, multi-modal, imaging system that uses ultrasound and light technologies to easily differentiate between benign or malignant lesions – without having to perform a biopsy. Similar to a pregnancy ultrasound appointment, a…
In a study of more than 1,000 patients published in Radiology, chest CT outperformed lab testing in the diagnosis of 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Researchers at Tongji Hospital in Wuhan, China, concluded that CT should be used as the primary screening tool for COVID-19. In the absence of specific therapeutic drugs or vaccines for COVID-19, it is essential to detect the disease at an…
The publication of the results of the Dutch-Belgian lung cancer screening trial (NELSON) supports recent calls to introduce lung cancer screening programmes throughout Europe. In light of the scientific evidence, lung cancer screening should be firmly embedded in any initiative launched by the European Commission and the Member States in the fight against cancer. As the leading cause of death…
The need to consider a formal recommendation on early screening for lung cancer was acknowledged by the Cross Party Group for Cancer, held at the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh in January. Attended by over 40 people representing patients, the medical community, and the pharmaceutical industry as well as political advisers and Members of the Scottish Parliament, the Group agreed to write to the…
A computer algorithm has been shown to be as effective as human radiologists in spotting breast cancer from x-ray images. The international team behind the study, which includes researchers from Google Health, DeepMind, Imperial College London, the NHS and Northwestern University in the US, designed and trained an artificial intelligence (AI) model on mammography images from almost 29,000 women.…
Each year almost 80,000 new patients in France alone receive fluoropyrimidines, a group of anti-cancer drugs including 5-FU which is normally administered intravenously to treat digestive, breast and head and neck cancer. However, fluoropyrimidines-based chemotherapies can cause severe toxicities (incidence at around 20%) and sometimes lethal toxicity (incidence between 0.1 and 1%) with part of…
Although breast cancer (BC) mammography screening enables early detection of breast cancer, mammography presents issues such as variability between the radiology readings and shortage of radiologists. This area of medical imaging is where artificial intelligence (AI) could help make the biggest difference and improve patient outcome.
Breast cancer screening is a well-designed and scientifically proven, evidence-based procedure, but has pitfalls such as under-detection and over-diagnosis. Surgery or radiotherapy may have serious consequences on health and must therefore be administered in carefully selected patients.
For lung cancer patients, life expectancy has hardly improved since 1970. A ten-year survival is 5%, making this the leading cause of death among all cancers. One reason is that, in most cases, the disease is diagnosed far too late. Professor Mathias Prokop is among leading advocates of low-dose CT screening for lung cancer for high risk patients.
The British Medical Journal (BMJ) published a new recommendation on colorectal cancer screening on October 2nd, 2019. The main point: Screening participation is only recommended to people with at least a three percent chance of developing colorectal cancer in the next 15 years. As a result, the majority of women would be advised not to participate in screening – even though its benefit to them…
Investigators from the Biomedical Research Institute of Malaga [(IBIMA)-CIMES-UMA, Malaga Spain] and collaborators have published the first pilot study to examine the use of a non-invasive liquid biopsy in early diagnosis of breast cancer. This study was unique in that the ctDNA analyses was performed before any invasive diagnostic procedure or treatment. To achieve their goal, the researchers…
A new study, presented as ‘Late Breaking Science’ at the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) annual congress, highlights the feasible use of mobile health (mHealth) devices to help with the screening and detection of atrial fibrillation (AF), a common heart condition. AF causes an irregular and sometimes, abnormally fast heart rate. The heart’s upper chambers (atria) contract randomly and…
The key challenges and opportunities surrounding High-Content Screening have been outlined in a presentation to leading scientists and technologists at a major lab conference. Speaking at the recent SLASEurope 2019 event in Barcelona, Professor Matthias Nees from the Institute of Biomedicine in the Department of Biology at the University of Turku, Finland, outlined the potential of High-Content…
Acoustic Mist Ionization Mass Spectrometry (AMI-MS) has played a pivotal role in the evolution of high-throughput screening (HTS) and now steps are being taken to advance this field to other potential applications. AstraZeneca has been an important player in this area, having already run more than 10 full collection HTS campaigns against a range of enzyme target types, and the company is now…